Water drop boolits after 'reheating' them in a oven?

[ghh3rd]

If I put my straignt WW boolits into perhaps a 400 degree oven for perhaps 30 minutes, and then dump them into a pail of cold water, will it harden them at all? If it does harden them, can I expect the boolits to increase in size at all?

Thanks,


Randy

[Wayne Smith]

Yes, water drop them to cool, it will harden them. If they increase it will be very little. Others here will have more info than I do.

[AZ-Stew]

Here's my experience (several posts, scroll down) using a "yard sale special" $10 toaster oven:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=42870&highlight=toaster

Yes, you can harden them substantially, given the proper alloy. I didn't critically measure before and after boolit diameter. I sized and applied gas checks before heat treating. I used a .001 larger die to lube after they had dried, so apparently there was little, if any, expansion.

Regards,

Stew

[ghh3rd]

Stew - that is a great post, full of valuable information. I just skimmed over it, but am already trying to remember if I saw any toaster ovens in the new Goodwill super store that just opened here while I was looking for some other lead related 'tools'.

Randy

[Frozone]

http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm

I can tell that you don't need a convection oven. I have great results in a standard electric.

[canyon-ghost]

Water dropping straight from the mold into cold water will harden wheelweight to around 12-15bhn. Heat treating in an oven for an hour and quenching in cold water will harden them to around 22-30 bhn. They start out in the 7-9 range, so the difference is considerable.

[Tazman1602]

Yes you can. Here's the procedure I use. First, take a couple of scrap bullets and put them on a cheap pizza pan and shove 'em in the oven after its preheated to475 or so -- you're gonna have to play with that because ovens are different. Take a look at the bullet every once in a while to see if it "slumps", you'll see it. Once it does get that bullet out and turn down heat and try another. Once you find where YOUR oven is just below where the bullets "slump" you can write that setting down. On wifes oven it's just below 450F.

Then what I do is put a towel in the kitchen sink, fill it up with cold water, dump in some ice cubes, turn on the oven and get it up to temp, put bullets in for a half hour -- people will tell you and hour is better but it ain't so, after a full half hour at heat, take pizza pan and dump bullets in sink and give them a minute to cool. I ALWAYS size and put GC's on before doing this but for Gods sake dont lube them because if you're married you might not be after that episode.........don't ask how I know that. Let them sit for a day or two and lube as you please. Works great.

One day I am gonna make a rack with various caliber diameter holes in it so I don't have to worry about the bullets falling down because I like to stand them up straight although I"ve never had any issues when they're laying down.

Let us know how the oven works for YOU!

Art

[MT Gianni]

You might ask yourself why your gun needs hard boolits also.

[Jack Stanley]

What I used to do when soaking them in oven heat was this . Use a small flat can such as a washed out tuna can and drill lots of holes in it . Pack it one layer deep of bullets so they can't fall over and then put it in at your desired temperature . After it's been in the heat for a half hour it's an easy matter to grab the can with pliers and quickly move it to the cold water without dumping the bullets .

Jack

[Tazman1602]

You might ask yourself why your gun needs hard boolits also.

Gun probably doesn't need them G, my mind does though. I *play* with heat treating because I"m chicken of leading even though I've yet to shoot a bullet at vels that would lead a barrel, well, I"ve got one 300 gr bullet I shoot out of a 444 that just about knocks me down and I haven't had a chance to chrono it because of winter but we'll see next spring.

I'm a HUGE fan of fire lapping *properly* if the barrel isn't smooth and for that I try to use soft bullets at very low speed. Only had one gun so far (I've casted for 20 years but only recently became possesed by the urge to shoot ALL cast....) that I had to fire lap but have done several for friends all with great results -- most of those were the old K-Mart Winchester 30-30's too........

So, I see you've been doing this a while so let me ask you this -- and I'm not being a smart aleck, why would I NOT want/need a hard rifle bullet? Yes I'm still learning.

Thanks,

Art

[Jack Stanley]

You would not need a hard bullet if you stay on the low side of velocity . A hard bullet with low pressure in a cartridge can cause it's own problems if the fit of the bullet is not right .

If you are happy with velocities under fifteen hundred or so , you really don't need to try and make bullets real hard to get there . However get an urge for velocity over two thousand and you may wish to open up a can of skulldugery to keep accuracy in line .

Jack

[Tazman1602]

You would not need a hard bullet if you stay on the low side of velocity . A hard bullet with low pressure in a cartridge can cause it's own problems if the fit of the bullet is not right .

If you are happy with velocities under fifteen hundred or so , you really don't need to try and make bullets real hard to get there . However get an urge for velocity over two thousand and you may wish to open up a can of skulldugery to keep accuracy in line .

Jack

That's what I *thought* Jack but wasn't sure. I don't see a need to pump up my big bore stuff that much but would like to TRY some .30 cal at moderate 2K fps velocities. That one .444 300 grain load I've got is *around* 2K but haven't chrono'd it yet, I'm guessing that because it just pounds the krap out of my shoulder....

Thanks,

Art